ITV News Channel History
Information taken from Wikipedia. Originally, the channel launched on 1 August 2000 as a joint venture between ITN and NTL as the "ITN News Channel". In June 2002, Carlton Television and Granada Television - the predecessors of ITV plc - bought out ITN's 65-per-cent stake. This led to a rebrand as the ITV News Channel in September 2002. In April 2004 the newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35-per-cent stake to assume full control of the channel. As the ITN News Channel, it was broadcast from a small studio with accommodation for only one presenter at a time. When relaunched as the ITV News Channel, it initially used the standard ITV News studio of the time, which was built for fixed length bulletins only, so the style of presentation was always more basic than that of its competitors. From the February 2004 relaunch, the channel came into its own. Along with the rest of ITV News, the channel was presented from the so-called 'theatre of news' set, a large virtual studio allowing presentation either from behind a desk or by presenters walking around, using the news wall to explain a story with the aid of graphics. For the first time, two presenters could present the channel together, which the management viewed as an improvement. As the channel shared facilities with ITV News bulletins on the ITV Network (which were also simulcast on the news channel), it had to move to other studios for around an hour before each ITV bulletin to allow for rehearsals. Initially a single locked-off camera studio was used at these times, which was very basic. Later the channel used a virtual reality studio at these times or, following ITN's takeover of the production of London Tonight, that studio. News content and programming for the channel was provided by ITN. 2005 closure In December 2005 it was confirmed that the channel would close down in 2006, in order to use its Freeview bandwidth (which was already timeshared with ITV4) to launch the CITV channel based on the existing CITV brand, and to use its funding to boost ITV News coverage on the main ITV Network. But on 15 December 2005 the decision was taken to close the ITV News Channel. The closure was subsequently brought forward and the channel closed down on Friday 23 December 2005 at 18:00 (GMT). The reason given was that it would have been unfair to expect the channel's staff to work long hours over Christmas knowing that the channel would soon be closing. The schedule for the last day of transmission on the ITV News Channel: * 0700 The Scott Chisholm Show * 1000 ITV News Live with Alastair Stewart * 1145 The Scott Chisholm Show * 1230 ITV Lunchtime News simulcast * 1330 ITV News Live with Faye Barker * 1500 ITV News Live with Nicholas Owen and Nina Hossain * 1600 ITV News Live with Owen Thomas and Faye Barker * 1730 SPECIAL: 5 Years Of the News Channel, presented by Alastair Stewart. At the end of the final programme, Alastair Stewart closed the channel with the words: "So that's the end of five years broadcasting as the ITV News Channel. Our thanks to all our contributors, studio and production staff, to all the reporters and correspondents and everyone who made the channel the professional and effective operation that it was. But most of all, you, our viewers. A big thank you to each and every one of you. We hope we both informed and occasionally entertained you over the years. It was our mission to bring you the fastest breaking news and the most comprehensive analysis. We hope that you'll think we succeeded." The picture then faded out to a blank screen and remained blank for a few seconds before fading back in to the ITN end board. The station closed shortly afterwards. Post-relaunch After almost eight years since its closure, the channel relaunched at midnight on 26th October 2013 as part of an ITV News revamp. The revamp included a flashback of the 2004 "Theatre of News" set and graphics, this time using an amber coloured logo instead of a blue one. Further more changes were made during another revamp on 3rd March 2016. The changes within this revamp include brand new graphics, brand new music and a new £1m modern virtual set as well as a brand new logo for ITV News. The TOTH (Top of the hour) countdown was also removed from the channel, and is now replaced by an extra 60 seconds of the commercial break. ITV News Channel on Digital Terrestrial Initially it was broadcast on ch48 until the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002, then on Freeview ch81 until closure in December 2005. After its relaunch in October 2013 it was broadcast on ch83, and on 3rd September 2014 the channel moved to a higher slot of 133 as part of a reshuffle of the news and children's' channels. Following the Freeview clearance in 2017, the channel then moved to a new EPG slot of ch235. ITV News Channel on TopUp TV In April 2017, the channel became available on TopUp TV via subscriber's choice. ITV News Channel wins RTS News Channel of the Year The channel won Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year in 2014, then again in 2017. Anniversaries On 1st August 2015 the channel marked its 15th anniversary since its original launch, and on 26th October 2018 it marked its 5th anniversary since its revival.Category:ITV Category:Television channels